1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing system including the printing apparatus, and more particularly, to a printing apparatus and a printing system including the printing apparatus that prints print contents acquired through satellite broadcasting, terrestrial broadcasting, cable broadcasting, the Internet, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing apparatus is known that prints contents acquired by a digital television apparatus through digital broadcasting.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-173757 discloses a printing system that addresses the issue of the user being able either to cancel payment in respect of failed print contents, or to reprint same, and the business entity that operates the system being able to reduce increased costs or lost time caused by support relating to the failure of print contents. In the printing system, print contents are printed together with identification information that identifies the print status, in such a manner that the success or failure of the printing of the print content is judged on the basis of the identification information.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-150987 discloses a reception apparatus that, when controlling the printing of digital information, determines copy control information appended to the digital information, such as “copy permitted”, “first-generation copy permitted”, “recopy prohibited”, “copy prohibited”, and the like, and controls whether or not the digital information is printed in accordance with the determined copy control information. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-150987 also discloses that, when it is determined that printing has failed in the printing apparatus, the user performs an input operation requesting a reprint, and reprinting is carried out by the printing apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-59248 discloses a method in which a printing apparatus forms an image on printing paper in accordance with received image data, the formed image is read in and sent to a publication management server as read image data, the publication management server judges the identicalness of the images in the image data sent to the printing apparatus and the read image data received from the printing apparatus, and if it is judged that they are not identical, then the printing apparatus performs invalidation of the printed image, for instance, by smearing the printed image.
In the above-described related arts, however, there is a problem in that frauds by the users with respect to paid-for print contents cannot be eliminated. Here, the frauds include an action of entering a correct print result, as a failed print result. More specifically, typical examples of the frauds include: the action of applying removable foreign matter to a correct print result and making the scanner apparatus read the result; the action of entering a print result by means of a scanner apparatus having writing on the platen; and the action of superimposing a transparent sheet having some print over the normal print result, and then making the scanner apparatus read the result.
In the method described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-173757, the user inspects the print result after a paid-for print content has been printed, and if the user judges that the print has failed, then the user makes a scanner apparatus read the print result, this reading result is sent to the digital television apparatus, and the success or failure of printing is judged in the digital television apparatus. Hence, the user can commit the above-described fraud to enter a correct print result as a failed print into the scanner apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-150987 makes no mention with respect to how to determine print failures in the printing apparatus. More specifically, it makes no mention of a composition that, when a density loss has occurred due to a nozzle ejection defect, is capable of determining a print failure of this kind, in accordance with the extent of density loss, even if this print failure can be perceived by the human user.
Furthermore, in the method described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-59248, an image having been sent to a printing apparatus and a read image received from the printing apparatus are compared in a server, which is the transmission source of the print contents, in order to judge the presence or absence of a print failure. Therefore, there may be circumstances where it is difficult to judge the presence or absence of a print failure. More specifically, since the print quality is dependent on a combination of printing conditions in the printing apparatus, such as the type of ink, the type of print medium, the printing mode, and the like, then in order to compare the images accurately in the server, it is necessary for the server to deduce the printing conditions in the printing apparatus and the print quality, which is dependent on the printing conditions. However, in practice, it is difficult to deduce the print quality in this way, in the server. Moreover, the method described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-59248 involves problems relating to the availability of the server. Namely, in order to carry out the image comparison in the server, a load is placed on the server even after transmission of the image, and the power supply of the server cannot be turned off until the printing and image reading has been completed in the printing apparatus, and the like.